Team Herald
PANJIM: The Goa Football Association (GFA) condoled the death of its founder president, Portuguese national, Lt Joao Luis Aranha which occurred last Wednesday in Cascais, Portugal. He was 98.
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GFA president Churchill Alemao recalled that Lt Aranha sought and got the permission of the Portuguese government in 1959 to set up an independent body to manage football affairs in the then India Portueguesa, as it was the Conselho dos Desportos that would govern sports in Goa then. It was then christened as Associacao Futebol de Goa.
“It was not easy for Lt Aranha to set up an independent body, as it was Lisbon that dictated terms even in the conduct of sports in all its Portuguese colonies then. It was due to the great enthusiasm, unity of efforts and passion led by Lt Aranha that Goa was accorded the special concession, and the Association was born,” Mr Churchill added.
Churchill pointed out that Lt Aranha in his message to GFA on on its 40th anniversary in 1999 had clearly expressed that his six years in Goa were the best years of his life which he lived among Goans, mainly with the football fraternity, and that football had grown technically and administratively.
“It was a great sporting gesture that Lt Aranha, in 1998, returned the GFA flag that he had taken with him after he left Goa post the 1961 Liberation when the then Secretary Aggie Alcassoas visited him in Lisbon,” Churchill pointed out.
He added that Lt Aranha, despite his advancing age, had made it a point to watch the Goa (India) football team and meet its members when they were playing in the 2010 Lusofonia Games in Lisbon.
“The founder has gone, but he has left solid imprints on the sands of Goan football. It was not easy to form a separate association for football in Goa during the then Portuguese regime, but he fought valiantly with his own Portuguese government only because he knew he had the full backing of the football crazy people of Goa along with its clubs, stressed Churchill.”
“He will always be remembered for the vision that has ultimately pushed football to occupy the centre-stage in Goa, what now with football being given the State official status, as what he did and achieved was purely for the good of the game. We salute the tall personality who sowed the seed of setting up the association which developed strong roots with the help of Dr Gustavo Monteiro, R M Salgaocar, Caxinata Desai, Pedro Furtado, Dr Antonio Dias Mandoli, Fr Custodio Chagas Silva, Fr Tomas Coutinho, Dr Francisco Cordeiro, Aires Medeira, Camalakar Naique, Augusto Tavora, Roquesinho Almeida, Valeriano Rebello and many others,” added Churchill.
